Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - 2023-24 season begins!

[glenwo2]

Found this (this is NOT my work)

This might be a bit mean but accurate :

I'm sure Mercer will get it together, though.

UPDATE :

 

[Incharge1976]

View attachment 760048

Even better

 

[Blackjack]

Jesper Bratt is better than Ilya Kovalchuck. Don’t @ me.

Also, as someone who never wanted Smith in the lineup and firmly believes that he’s the weakest link on defense, I have no desire to plug Cal Foote in there. Foote is significantly worse than Smith.

The only time I want to see Foote is if Smith also gets hurt and we have no other options. Then let him have ~10 to 12 low leverage minutes.

 

[MasterofGrond]

Cal Foote sucks ass. I’d give him a game, mostly to try and see if it spooks Smith into being better, but neither one is the answer. Miller or Nemec is what we need (probably nemec)

 

[Better Call Sal]

Listen, I'm not a Smith fan by any means, but he's an extremely easy target given his role. On most nights, I expect him to be the de facto "worst" player on the ice. Now granted, last night was probably his worst game so criticism is warranted. But it reminds me of a similar scenario that Bobby Holik commented on in a podcast where he talked about how Brent Sutter pointed out clips in team meetings of his line of him, Mike Rupp and whoever else might've rotated with them screwing up once or twice after a loss. And Holik, though he didn't know it would end up being his last year, stood up to him calling out bullshit because they played 6-11 minutes a night and that the role players' short comings shouldn't be the most prominent reason for a bad stretch of results.

While it's not a perfect comparison because Smith is a defender who has to play more minutes, especially if we have to kill some penalties, I think it still applies. He's a role player, and he should be the "worst" player on the ice most nights if we want to be a good team. And given Sutter is a renowned d-bag, I approve of Ruff not throwing him under the bus to the media.

I am hopeful when Miller is healthy, he can slot in because I think he's a better player. But if our 3rd pairing defenseman who played the least amount of minutes of the 6 of them is our biggest problem, then we should be better than the opposition most nights.

 

[forceten]

Ruff isn't going to come out and say "oh yeah, Smitty is dogsh--". He says it in coach code. His answer made it quite clear he blew that play, but that others were involved in defensive breakdowns (Totally true) and that we tend to focus on the goals against not the opportunities that "would not go".

We just don't have a better option than Smith right now. We have our #7-9 options all injured. Foote probably is not ahead of Miller, Nemec, or Hatakka at this point on our pencil depth chart.

I'd love to see Nemec or Hatakka get a shot.

--- in other news ---

Was it Alex Holtz who had a lovely pass on the disallowed Bratt goal. That was really nice. The finish was awesome too.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Ruff isn't going to come out and say "oh yeah, Smitty is dogsh--". He says it in coach code. His answer made it quite clear he blew that play, but that others were involved in defensive breakdowns (Totally true) and that we tend to focus on the goals against not the opportunities that "would not go".

We just don't have a better option than Smith right now. We have our #7-9 options all injured. Foote probably is not ahead of Miller, Nemec, or Hatakka at this point on our pencil depth chart.

I'd love to see Nemec or Hatakka get a shot.

--- in other news ---

Was it Alex Holtz who had a lovely pass on the disallowed Bratt goal. That was really nice. The finish was awesome too.

Sure was. I was bummed that got called back but Bastian certainly was off on the entry.

I still hate offside challenges. Linesmen don’t have too many jobs, get the call right on the fly or not and move on.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Sure was. I was bummed that got called back but Bastian certainly was off on the entry.

I still hate offside challenges. Linesmen don’t have too many jobs, get the call right on the fly or not and move on.

The only thing the offside review has provided is proof that linesmen don't know how to call offsides at game speed.

 

[Whaddagoal]

Sure was. I was bummed that got called back but Bastian certainly was off on the entry.

I still hate offside challenges. Linesmen don’t have too many jobs, get the call right on the fly or not and move on.

The only thing the offside review has provided is proof that linesmen don't know how to call offsides at game speed.

It was sooo obvious from the in arena view I had at least... And it was my angled other side diagonally from my seating. As soon as they crossed the line I was like has to be offside but they kept playing till goal. So I expected that to be called back. Was surprised whistle wasn't blown right away.

i agree... It's one job and literally in their job title. Get it right...

 

[Call Me Al]

seeing a lot of hate on smith for the first goal, but not nearly enough hate for smith on the third goal - where he had the puck with time and space behind the goal, and all 4 teammates on one side of the ice, so what did he do? go the other way and throw it up the boards to two wide open wild players, failing to clear and extending the d zone time that ultimately led to the breakdown and goal. he stinks!

 

[Devs3cups]

 

[Call Me Al]

also luke hughes now second in rookie scoring, 1 point behind the leader. with how good our power play is I expect him to be at or near the top all season (even if the current level of success is unsustainable).

 

[Blackjack]

I was thinking last night about how the primary argument against Luke Hughes’s Calder chances were that he had no chance to supplant Dougie as the top PP qb, being that Dougie makes $9 million, just scored 78 points and is probably a top 5-10 d in the league.

So we just went ahead and made him the top PP quarterback anyway. Not by controversially demoting Dougie, but just by going “nuh uhh, actually we have TWO top units, they’re 1A and 1B” despite that fact that we quite clearly do not.

LMAO

 

[Devs3cups]

 

[Cheddabombs]

Well, at least it could be worse lol

 

[Ripshot 43]

Soooo, don’t re-sign him to a 2 year deal?

 

[Devs3cups]

 

[Better Call Sal]

I don't know about that narrative at all, but there's no question Toffoli has been excellent.

Personally, I thought his acquisition made up for almost any offense that went out the door. With a full season of Timo and Luke, offense was the least of my concerns with this group.

 

[Devils731]

I was hoping Sharangovich was more like the 2 year ago Shara this year, even if the Devils traded him away.

So far he seems to be continuing to play like last year Shara who isn’t a big contributor at the NHL level.

 

[Nocashstyle]

Toffoli just knows how to score and seems to be getting better as he ages. Obviously we’re still in the honeymoon phase, but would absolutely love to retain him beyond this year. It’s shocking how perfect of a fit he has been the second he stepped onto the ice with a Devils jersey on.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Jack Hughes - 1st in points, 1st in assists, T-16th in goals, T-1st in PP points
Jesper Bratt - 3rd in points, T-9th in goals, T-1st in PP points
Tyler Toffoli - T-5th in goals, T-16th in points
Dougie Hamilton - T-3rd in defensemen goals
Luke Hughes - T-2nd in overall rookie points, T-7th in defenseman PP points
Erik Haula - T-16th in goals

 

[Rhodes 81]

I'll admit that I thought there was a 30-40% chance Toffoli wouldn't really be an upgrade over Sharangovich at even strength. I knew he would score on the power play and I knew he would at the very least keep his spot in the top 6 so Haula didn't end up back on the Hughes line, but I worried he wouldn't end up adding that many goals to the even strength total when there are only so many to go around.

So far I look like a big dumb idiot. Not only is he finishing chances at the rate he always has, he's been more involved in the setup than I think I realized he was capable of. It's wild to think that despite their hot start, there's still untapped potential for the Hughes line to score more at even strength.

 

[NJDevs26]

The only thing the offside review has provided is proof that linesmen don't know how to call offsides at game speed.

I do think they miss some calls by virtue of the ‘let the play go if there’s doubt cause it can always get called back’ replay cushion

 

[None Shall Pass]

We've only played one game where we gave up fewer than 3 goals. That's going to be an issue eventually.

 

[MasterofGrond]

I do think they miss some calls by virtue of the ‘let the play go if there’s doubt cause it can always get called back’ replay cushion

which I hate.

I get the idea of replay is to get "correct" calls, but we let the impossible dream of perfection interfere with the actual enjoyability of the game. Replay should exist to correct serious, obviously errors, imo. Not get reviewed for 3 minute back 2 inch offsides